At the end of the year, I am writing to you worried. Your people are gloomy, they are getting old, they have the impression of slowly losing their strength and of not being able to do anything about it. He sees his young people leaving you by the hundreds of thousands over the past fifteen years, convinced that their career and future lie elsewhere, and that you are only good for vacations.
France, my dear France, you are going down. We earn less than before, at your place. You feel like you're in the draft palace. Large projects quickly go out of fashion. Today's stroke of genius is too often tomorrow's fiasco. Lost sight of: success and pride.
“I believe in you”
I can clearly see the looks you cast around you, envious of some whom you looked down on yesterday (Italy, Spain), poorly hiding your evil joy in the face of the debacle of others (Germany), impressed by the shocks of the big ones (United States). United States, China, Russia) to which you pretend to still belong, but who hardly consider you anymore.
“During your two-thousand-year history, you have had to do it again more than once”
Your African friends slam the door in your face; they blame you and insult you. Your Overseas people criticize you for your double standards and your citizenship gaps. In return, you investigate their expensive case, fueling suspicion about your ability to support your most distant children. France, my dear France, you are not up to the standards of yourself. Your inner conflicts even make your solid institutions falter. You doubt yourself, and it is shrouded in fog that you advance in this century that, for the moment, you are suffering. If you fail to reform, many predict a slow decline for you. Not just decline; decadence, irreversible.
Well, I believe in you. Because in the course of your two-thousand-year history, you have had to do it again more than once. And you always made up for it. Do you hear how people evoke, lately, the fond memories of your spectacular recovery in 1958? Do you think we will do the same in sixty years, from 2025? Best wishes to you.
France
